U.S. durable goods orders dropped 2.1% last month amid a slowdown in exports and a buildup in inventories. This is the latest economic data set showing cracks in the economy while the world's largest economies engage in a trade war. IHS Markit said Thursday that U.S. manufacturing activity fell to a nine-year low.

...

"The growing worries around a US/China elongated trade battle and its implications on the tech space are heavily weighing on the minds of both investors and the companies themselves caught in the cross hairs," Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to clients. "The ‘poster child' for the US/China trade wars continue to be Apple with the stock under heavy pressure as many competitors are yelling fire in a crowded theater around the potential China impact to Cupertino if this situation worsens.

]]>iehi-feed-64738Fri, 24 May 2019 17:04:52 GMTThe Economy is Stagnant, Not "Booming"http://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-24_TheEconomyisStagnantNotBooming.html
President Trump likes to brag about the supposedly booming economy. So do other Republican politicians. Some journalists have gotten into the habit too, exaggerating the strength of the economic expansion, because it makes for a good story. Here's the truth: There is no boom. The economy has been mired in an extended funk since the financial crisis ended in 2010. G.D.P. growth still has not reached 3 percent in any year, and 3 percent isn't a very high bar.

Last week, while attending an economics conference in Washington, I discovered one particularly clear sign of the economy's struggles -- namely, that it keeps performing worse than the experts have predicted.

...

Over time, the differences between the experts' predictions and the economy's performance have added up. The American economy would be about 6 percent larger today -- producing $1.3 trillion more in goods and services this year -- if the forecasts had come true. And for most families, real-life experience has been more disappointing than the G.D.P. numbers, because much of the bounty of the economy's growth has flowed to the affluent.

...

The 2017 Trump tax [was] is a dreadful piece of economic policy -- essentially a giant effort to aggravate income inequality. Tax cuts that benefit the wealthy most are huge and permanent. Tax cuts focused on everyone else are smaller and temporary... A better policy response would start with a tax cut focused on the majority of Americans, not the wealthy. And there are many other ways to take on secular stagnation... Infrastructure projects, to jump-start investment. The retirement of coal-fired power plants, which would also lead to new investment. Stronger safety-net programs, including Social Security, to reduce the savings glut. More aggressive antitrust policies, to combat monopolies. And a Federal Reserve that, at long last, stopped making the same mistake -- of overestimating both growth and inflation.

]]>iehi-feed-64734Fri, 24 May 2019 12:31:37 GMTFederal Savings Bank CEO Indicted For Approving Manafort Mortgageshttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-24_FederalSavingsBankCEOIndictedForApprovingManafortMortgages.html
iehi-feed-64732Thu, 23 May 2019 22:23:51 GMTNew York Passes Bill Giving Congress a Way to Get Trump's State Tax Returnshttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-23_NewYorkPassesBillGivingCongressaWaytoGetTrumpsStateTaxReturns.html
New York State lawmakers on Wednesday gave their final approval to a bill that would clear a path for Congress to obtain President Trump's state tax returns, injecting another element into a tortuous battle over the president's refusal to release his taxes.

The bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat and regular critic of Mr. Trump's policies and behavior, will authorize state tax officials to release the president's state returns to any one of three congressional committees.

The returns -- filed in New York, the president's home state and business headquarters -- would likely contain much of the same information as the contested federal returns, though it remained unclear whether those congressional committees would use such new power in their investigations.

The Legislature's actions put the state in a bit of uncharted legal territory; Mr. Trump has said that he is ready to take the fight over his federal tax returns to the Supreme Court, and it seems likely that he would seek to contest New York's maneuver.

...

Steven M. Rosenthal, a tax lawyer and senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said he would not be surprised if the president fought the state law, though he believed it passed legal muster.

"Of course, the Legislature was motivated by Donald Trump's current refusals," Mr. Rosenthal said, but added that he thought the bill was written broadly enough to avoid the "bill of attainder" accusation.

That opinion was echoed by Brian Galle, a law professor at Georgetown University Law School, who said that "bills of attainder have been interpreted really narrowly by the courts," and noted that legislation often describes targeted industries or municipalities in vague terms.

]]>iehi-feed-64731Thu, 23 May 2019 22:18:40 GMTLiving In A Van in Google's Backyard? Strapped Tech Co. Employees About To Be Hit With Banhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-23_LivingInAVaninGooglesBackyardStrappedTechCoEmployeesAboutToBeHit.html
Some Silicon Valley towns have cracked down in recent months, creating an even more uncertain future for RV residents. At a March city council meeting, Mountain View voted to ban RVs from parking overnight on public streets. The ban hasn't taken effect yet, but soon, the town's van dwellers will need to go elsewhere. The city council also declared a shelter crisis and passed a new ordinance to ticket vehicles that "discharge domestic sewage on the public right of way." At the meeting, some people opposing the ban blamed Google for the housing crisis.

...

She applied online to be a Google security guard and when the contracting firm gave her the job, she moved to Mountain View in April. She initially considered renting a small apartment, but realized she couldn't save any money that way. "An apartment out here would cost at least $2,500 a month," she said. "The money I make here is great, but I would be pretty much spending the majority of that on rent and I just don't want to do that." So she decided to rent the RV for $800 a month.

"There's less space. That's the main thing. It's confined," she said. Her day starts on Google's campus where she can grab a quick breakfast, usually a banana. Lunch is also available at headquarters, while dinner is prepared on the RVs two stove tops. There's no oven.

...

Another RV resident in Mountain View is a 41-year-old IT professional who now drives for Lyft Inc. He moved from Sacramento about two years ago after his wife got a job at a big drug-development company in Silicon Valley. (He asked not to be identified because he worries his wife might lose her job if her employer learns about her living situation.) Once they arrived, they realized they couldn't afford to rent an apartment and build their savings, despite a combined income of roughly $100,000 a year.

"We just did the math when we were, you know, renting a room, and we could kind of stay afloat but there's no way to save any money for retirement or the future at all," he said.

...

The Lyft driver, and other van dwellers around him, said they aren't sure what they'll do when the parking ban kicks in, rendering their situation illegal. Many hope to just muddle through somehow. "I'm aware of the ban," said Brandon, another Mountain View RV resident who didn't want to share his last name. "I'll cross that particular bridge when I get to it."

Tech companies should be doing more to fix the housing crisis, the Lyft driver said. "There was a time when corporations were allowed to operate because they were also providing for the communities around them in some way," he said. "And for some reason that responsibility has shifted to profits only."

]]>iehi-feed-64729Wed, 22 May 2019 15:05:56 GMTSandals Resorts Allegedly Ripped Off Guests With Bogus Taxes Chargeshttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-22_SandalsResortsAllegedlyRippedOffGuestsWithBogusTaxesCharges.html
iehi-feed-64727Wed, 22 May 2019 12:58:08 GMTIconic Waldorf Astoria hotel is part of China's US property fire sale - but don't expect a bargainhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-22_IconicWaldorfAstoriahotelispartofChinasUSpropertyfiresalebutdont.html
iehi-feed-64726Mon, 20 May 2019 18:07:44 GMTDitech Customers Win Major Victory In Ditech Bankruptcyhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-20_DitechCustomersWinMajorVictoryInDitechBankruptcy.html
iehi-feed-64725Sun, 19 May 2019 20:37:01 GMTWeWork Wants to Become Its Own Landlord With Latest Spending Spreehttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-19_WeWorkWantstoBecomeItsOwnLandlordWithLatestSpendingSpree.html
Neumann says only two things are holding his company back: "Cash," he says, pausing for a beat of suspense, "and space." In addition to SoftBank tightening its spigot, some buildings with WeWork as a major tenant have had trouble getting bank loans. And some landlords have grown leery of leasing much more space to Neumann, afraid of what terms he might be able to negotiate. He says alternative sources of funding and real estate can pick up the slack.

Now, after more than a year of planning, WeWork is creating an investment fund that aims to raise billions of dollars to buy stakes in buildings where it will be a major tenant. If all goes according to plan, the fund, called ARK, will start with $2.9 billion, including $1 billion from Canadian real estate investor Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc. WeWork has long said it mostly stuck to leasing space because it believed in being "asset-light." Now it's wagering that buildings become more valuable with WeWorks in them, in which case ARK will put more of that added value back in the company's own pocket.

The fund's pitch to investors revolves around the relative safety of a real estate play with a large tenant in hand. It also depends on a gut-level faith in WeWork's vibes. Sylvain Fortier, Ivanhoé Cambridge's chief investment and innovation officer, says the company's strength is what he calls a "recipe." "People actually want to be in the office, actually want to be together. They feel a little bit like home," Fortier says. "I bet you that sooner rather than later, a WeWork-branded building will be attracting other tenants the same way you will never have a vacant space next to an Apple Store."

...

ARK won't exactly put to rest concerns about conflicts of interest. "The question will be, what happens when the interests of the limited partners diverge from the interest of WeWork?" says Charles Elson, a corporate governance professor at the University of Delaware. "The more complicated structures someone comes up with, the more difficult it is to explain."

]]>iehi-feed-64724Sun, 19 May 2019 17:22:14 GMTA Generation of Taxi Drivers Conned in "Subprime Medallion Loan" Schemes Across The Countryhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-19_AGenerationofTaxiDriversConnedinSubprimeMedallionLoanSchemesAcro.html
The call came from a prominent businessman who was selling a medallion, the coveted city permit that allows a driver to own a yellow cab instead of working for someone else. If Mr. Hoque gave him $50,000 that day, he promised to arrange a loan for the purchase... Mr. Hoque made about $30,000 that year. He had no idea, he said later, that he had just signed a contract that required him to pay $1.7 million.

Over the past year, a spate of suicides by taxi drivers in New York City has highlighted in brutal terms the overwhelming debt and financial plight of medallion owners. All along, officials have blamed the crisis on competition from ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.

But a New York Times investigation found much of the devastation can be traced to a handful of powerful industry leaders who steadily and artificially drove up the price of taxi medallions, creating a bubble that eventually burst. Over more than a decade, they channeled thousands of drivers into reckless loans and extracted hundreds of millions of dollars before the market collapsed.

But the methods stripped immigrant families of their life savings, crushed drivers under debt they could not repay and engulfed an industry that has long defined New York. More than 950 medallion owners have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Times analysis of court records. Thousands more are barely hanging on.

The practices were strikingly similar to those behind the housing market crash that led to the 2008 global economic meltdown: Banks and loosely regulated private lenders wrote risky loans and encouraged frequent refinancing; drivers took on debt they could not afford, under terms they often did not understand.

Some big banks even entered the taxi industry in the aftermath of the housing crash, seeking a new market, with new borrowers.

The combination of easy money, eager borrowers and the lure of a rare asset helped prices soar far above what medallions were really worth. Some industry leaders fed the frenzy by purposefully overpaying for medallions in order to inflate prices, The Times found.

Between 2002 and 2014, the price of a medallion rose to more than $1 million from $200,000, even though city records showed that driver incomes barely changed.

...

As in the housing crash, government officials ignored warning signs and exempted lenders from regulations. The city Taxi and Limousine Commission went the furthest of all, turning into a cheerleader for medallion sales. It was tasked with regulating the industry, but as prices skyrocketed, it sold new medallions and began declaring they were "better than the stock market."

...

The investigation found example after example of drivers trapped in exploitative loans, including hundreds who signed interest-only loans that required them to pay exorbitant fees, forfeit their legal rights and give up almost all their monthly income, indefinitely.

...

Lenders developed their techniques in New York but spread them to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere, transforming taxi industries across the United States.

The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump's now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.

But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees' advice. The reports were never filed with the government.

...

Ms. McFadden [a longtime anti-money laundering specialist in Deutsche Bank's Jacksonville office] said she was terminated last year after she raised concerns about the bank's practices. Since then, she has filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators about the bank's anti-money-laundering enforcement.

...

Ms. McFadden said she had reviewed the transactions and found that money had moved from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals. She concluded that the transactions should be reported to the government -- in part because federal regulators had ordered Deutsche Bank, which had been caught laundering billions of dollars for Russians, to toughen its scrutiny of potentially illegal transactions.

... Typically, such a report would be reviewed by a team of anti-money laundering experts who are independent of the business line in which the transactions originated -- in this case, the private-banking division -- according to Ms. McFadden and two former Deutsche Bank managers.

That did not happen with this report. It went to managers in New York who were part of the private bank, which caters to the ultrawealthy. They felt Ms. McFadden's concerns were unfounded and opted not to submit the report to the government, the employees said.

Ms. McFadden and some of her colleagues said they believed the report had been killed to maintain the private-banking division's strong relationship with Mr. Kushner.

After Mr. Trump became president, transactions involving him and his companies were reviewed by an anti-financial crime team at the bank called the Special Investigations Unit. That team, based in Jacksonville, produced multiple suspicious activity reports involving different entities that Mr. Trump owned or controlled, according to three former Deutsche Bank employees who saw the reports in an internal computer system.

Some of those reports involved Mr. Trump's limited liability companies. At least one was related to transactions involving the Donald J. Trump Foundation, two employees said.

Deutsche Bank ultimately chose not to file those suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department, either, according to three former employees. They said it was unusual for the bank to reject a series of reports involving the same high-profile client.

]]>iehi-feed-64720Sat, 18 May 2019 18:25:16 GMTDeed Fraud Alert: Woman Evicted From Home She Thought She Ownedhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-18_DeedFraudAlertWomanEvictedFromHomeSheThoughtSheOwned.html
iehi-feed-64718Thu, 16 May 2019 13:59:11 GMTStudent Loan Debt Alert: Feds Crank Up Collection Effortshttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-16_StudentLoanDebtAlertFedsCrankUpCollectionEfforts.html
iehi-feed-64716Wed, 15 May 2019 16:17:01 GMTAmateur Home Flippers Get Harsh Wake Up Callhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-15_AmateurHomeFlippersGetHarshWakeUpCall.html
iehi-feed-64715Tue, 14 May 2019 14:14:16 GMTAngelo Mozilo Says He Is Done Being The Villain Of The Financial Crisishttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-14_AngeloMoziloSaysHeIsDoneBeingTheVillainOfTheFinancialCrisis.html
iehi-feed-64714Tue, 14 May 2019 11:51:59 GMTLive Well Financial's abrupt closing leads to host of problemshttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-14_LiveWellFinancialsabruptclosingleadstohostofproblems.html
iehi-feed-64713Mon, 13 May 2019 12:15:19 GMTNew York City Taxes Create A Conga Line Of Businesses To Miamihttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-13_NewYorkCityTaxesCreateACongaLineOfBusinessesToMiami.html
iehi-feed-64712Sun, 12 May 2019 15:11:46 GMTRide Sharing Scam Alert: Ride Sharing Scammers Bustedhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-12_RideSharingScamAlertRideSharingScammersBusted.html
iehi-feed-64711Fri, 10 May 2019 21:10:38 GMTUber Drives Into a Ditch for its IPOhttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-10_UberDrivesIntoaDitchforitsIPO.html
``Shares of Uber fell more than 7% on its first day of trading Friday, marking a rocky Wall Street debut for a company that endured plenty of bumps on its long road to going public. Uber opened at $42 a share, below its IPO price of $45, and ended the day even lower at $41.57.

That disappointing first day performance sets Uber apart from the vast majority of its tech peers. In the past five years, only 10% of venture capital-backed US technology IPOs finished the first day in the red, according to data provided to CNN Business from Renaissance Capital, which manages IPO-focused exchange-traded funds.

Uber did succeed in raising $8.1 billion in one of the largest public offerings ever, a substantial war chest that should fund the company's expansion into new cities and service categories. But that amount was still at the low end of what Uber originally set out to raise.

...

shares in Lyft fell below their IPO price on their second day of trading and have continued to tumble since. The stock is now down about 25% from the IPO price... tech companies that have come to market in recent years with massive losses -- including Lyft and Snap -- are currently "not trading above their IPO price."

]]>iehi-feed-64709Wed, 08 May 2019 19:56:58 GMTDonald Trump's emperor-has-no-clothes moment on his wealth is herehttp://implode-explode.com/viewnews/2019-05-08_DonaldTrumpsemperorhasnoclothesmomentonhiswealthishere.html
Put plainly: The story that Donald Trump has been telling himself and the American public for much of his life -- and especially since becoming a presidential candidate in 2015 -- isn't true. And it's more than an exaggeration. It's the opposite of what happened. Trump was gifted huge amounts of money by his father. He lost it at eye-popping rates.

Will any of this matter to Trump's supporters or, more broadly, to the 2020 electorate? Probably not. Minds have been made up -- on both sides -- about Trump for a very long time. Facts and reality don't seem to puncture those opinions about the President.

But whether voters vote on this issue next November is, really, beside the point. And the point is this: Donald Trump is not the person he sold himself to be to the American public in 2016. Period.